Shop for Phone Deals

Dear Ms. Smartphone: I work as a nanny for a family in the Bay Area but I plan to return to my home country (Germany) in three or four years. The family I work for got me my own iPhone and we text each other all day long. But I plan to get a second phone to stay in touch with my friends and family back home. I can’t decide whether it will be an Android phone or the new Apple 14. They both have good deals this weekend- you call it Black Friday over here. How should I shop for phone deals? Sonya, Oakland

Dear Sonya: This column posts on Sunday, so you might have missed some of the Black Friday deals, but there is CyberMonday coming up. I doubt that the specials to shop for phone deals are going to change much. As you said, this is a good time to pick up a new phone.

As to which model you choose, you won’t go wrong with either. From what I read, Android phones outsell iPhones in most of Europe, but less so in Northern Europe. There the iPhone is more common, particularly among younger people. But the iPhone starts with a higher price and is less affordable. As long as there are more Android users there are beneficial network effects when it comes to messaging. Built in text or SMS apps(Short Message/Messaging seem to work better across a common operating system. That might be a consideration if you are planning to use an Apple phone, but your friends do not. 

Buy Now…Sell Then:

Since phones cost more to buy in Europe, it occurs to me that you might get the new Apple phone here, use it for a few years, and then resell it when you get back to Europe. There are many reasons that phones cost more there. Some countries impose higher taxes or fees on the purchase, the currency fluctuates, and the retailers mark it up. Take this site lightly but it estimate that the average worker needs to put in about 89 hours of time to buy an iPhone13 in the U.K., about 77 hours in Germany, and only 34 in Switzerland.

Some issues to be aware of should you pick the Apple phone- these are not deal breakers- are that the U.S. versions of the iPhone 14 are slightly different than the ones currently sold in Europe. The U.S. device has a special feature to summon emergency satellite service, something that you will probably never need to use. The U.S. phone can store your driver’s license or official ID, and it can display Apple’s 3D maps. By the time you sell your Apple phone, these features will probably be standard throughout the product line.

E-Sims:

One issue of more concern is the e-Sim. Newer iPhones have substituted an electronic chip for the physical slot where you insert a SIM card.  So if you want to switch to a different account you have to do that through your telecom carrier. Switching out a SIM card is a useful thing to do when you travel abroad for an extended period of time. If this is important you might want to find a phone that lets you physically swap out the SIM cards.

If you get the Samsung phone, be aware that the North American distributed phones are said to have a better operating system than those available in Europe. I doubt that you or I would notice, but a tech connoisseur might recognize the difference between a Snapdragon S22 versus a Exynus 2200 chip

Point of Purchase:

Let’s get back to Black Friday, or Cyber Monday for a moment. Since you are here for three years and can lock into a US contract for that period, it seems like a no-brainer to get one of the “free” phones that are offered. But keep in mind that you will pay at least $30.00 a month for network service, and that amounts to over a thousand dollars plus tax over the life of the contract. 

Also, remember that if you are going to resell your phone after three years, it’s important to keep it in tip-top shape, fix scratches to the screen, and keep the battery fresh. Make sure that the phone is “unlocked”, i.e, it will operate on the bandwidth of different telecom carriers. Finally a quick reminder that European Union has mandated that in 2024 all phones must be chargeable by a single USB-C port. The new Apple phone is ready to go but it will not be packaged with a wall charger and you have to buy it separately. Clearly there are lots of decisions, even if the price is right.